It is a delight to see that our exciting theatre visit last week to see "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" has inspired some very creative writing and spectacular fashion designs, as in the photograph above. Congratulations to everyone for your collaborative team work in creating designs for the White Witch of Narnia.
This week is Children's Mental Health week. We have discussed in our whole school assembly and in PHSE lessons the importance of recognising how we feel and supporting one another in our community. Everyone can feel sad some days, but is so important children feel they can share any worries they have with family, friends or teachers. Life has difficult moments for all of us, but sharing and talking about our feelings can make such a difference. As adults we need to find time to listen to the children, at home and at school; and support them when dealing with any worries or anxiety they have, no matter how small it may seem. Good friendships are important too and kindness to one another. In our school we want our children to talk and share any worries they have, with friends, teachers or other adults.
The safety of our children at school is also very important. I respectfully ask that when you collect your child/children at the school gate you keep them near you. Car parks are such dangerous places for young children and if left to run around, a child may dart across the car park. Wherever possible, I would always encourage reversing into a space when there are no children around, so that you can drive out with better visibility. No one wants an accident, so please take care and be vigilant with your children, particularly when collecting them after school.
Our children are always very smart at school, but please ensure long hair is tied back for school, as this can cause difficulties in PE lessons or indeed in the classroom when the children are trying to concentrate. Thank you for your support.
You are warmly invited to attend a fun, family Bingo Evening, organised by the Friends of Grantham Prep.
This will be taking place on Thursday 24th February, between 4pm and 6pm and includes Pizza and drinks for the children. Tickets are £5 each. All children attending must have a supervising adult with them.
We are kindly asking for donations for tombola prizes. If you have anything that you are happy to donate, then please bring into school and put them in the box, in school reception area.
A very big and warm welcome to George and Victoria, who have joined us in our Nursery and Year One classes respectively. This is a big change for them having lived in Hong Kong. They are very pleased to be here, especially as they are joining their cousins Ffion and Owen in Year 5 and Year 6.
George loves playing with his diggers and his favourite food is cake!! Victoria's favourite food is mashed potato and loves to read a book at bedtime. Her favourite book is "Super Diaper Baby".
If you see them around school please smile and say hello.
It's been so long since we were last able to do a Rock Band performance that we thought we would invite you in to one of our practice sessions. Here we are rehearsing "Mad World" by Tears for Fears. We hope you enjoy it and we look forward to our first live show of 2022 in the coming months.
Rock on!
Mr Monaghan and the mini Rock Stars
"Raiders March" - by John Williams
The legendary composer, John Williams, turned 90 this week (8th Feb).
He’s composed the music for Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and several other incredible movies. Miss Kerby challenges you to think about some of his iconic “themes”! There could be some housepoints in it…
As Steven Spielberg once said, “Without John Williams, there is no force, dinosaurs do not walk the Earth, we do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe”.
Here is Theo playing “Raiders March” by John Williams.
On Sunday 6th February, 13 of our eager swimmers participated in the annual Grantham and District Rotary Swimarathon. The atmosphere was fantastic with feel good music being played whilst the children swam, which resulted in them dancing in the pool whilst waiting for their turn. All the lanes were busy with swimmers from different groups in and around the Grantham area hoping to raise as much money as possible for local charities. The children swam in a relay format, with the final 5 minutes finishing with everyone swimming all together.
Lots of money raised for lots of great causes, it was an absolute pleasure to be part of such a worthwhile event!
U8 and U9 Netball at Stamford School
Team
Hugo P, Benjamin G, Henry D, Elise K, Eva C, Rupert C, Isabelle D, Ralph N, Harry J, Freddie P, Eliza B, Emily K, Alex H-S, Henrietta S
On Thursday 3rd February the U8 and U9 Netballers ventured to Stamford School to attend a Netball festival. With five schools in total participating there was no shortage of opposition, and throughout the afternoon, both teams were given lots of court time and plenty of opportunity to put into practice all the skills that they had been working on in PE lessons and after school clubs. Scores and results were not the main focus of the festival, but instead the aim was to improve their Netball skills and practise their team work through playing in a fun and friendly atmosphere.
Pupils in the junior school had lots of fun making Ice Queen costumes - inspired by the recent trip to watch 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' in Nottingham.
In the play, the Queen's costume was a dramatic show - stopper, especially when the queen was elevated high above the stage, with a very long, flowing gown that went on forever!
In our versions, pupils worked in mixed groups, using a selection of fabrics (some kindly donated by Mrs.Morgan - thank you!), wadding, lace, cardboard, paper and masking tape to create these wonderful costumes.
Pupils had to fasten the fabric using tying, wrapping and tape, and were not allowed to cut the fabric in any way, so ingenuity and problem solving were essential.
We were especially pleased with how pupils worked together in teams, some making elaborate crowns, others draping fabrics, and some were just amazingly patient at being dressed up!
I think you'll agree that we have some very talented designers in our school - the results speak for themselves - well done everyone - a great STEAM session!
This week year 6 conducted an experiment looking at how exercise affects their heart rate. Looking at the structure of the human heart, each child measured their resting heart rate before taking part in a variety of activities to raise their heart rate. The children recorded their results before creating a bar chart to show their results.
What an exciting few days we had last week! We were thrilled to share our assembly with the whole school and a group of parents, and visiting Nottingham's Theatre Royal on Wednesday was a real treat. We talked at length about our favourite moments and how they had staged particular sections of the story. For us Drama lovers, it was a wonderful few days.
Naturally, we have also been busy working hard in our lessons too. We have looked in detail at where children were evacuated from and the sorts of areas in the UK that they were sent to; this linked in English, History and Geography and we also used a real suitcase to enhance our discussions.
Through the power of Zoom we have kept in touch with our classmates who are isolating and even completed two practice 11+ papers.
This week we were also actively involved in football games and/or STEAM where mixed year group teams took on the challenges of creating a costume for the White Witch - clearly inspired by our theatre trip last week.
Science - Decanting
This week in science year 5 conducted an experiment looking at separating materials using decanting. Decanting is a method of separation which uses the different densities of materials as the way of separating them. The children really enjoyed getting to grips with this simple experiment and it really enhanced their scientific knowledge.
Class 4 have followed up the fantastic trip to the Theatre Royal in Nottingham to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by completing their half-termly Independent writing task.
All pupils started off with the title ' Through the Wardrobe'...., and there were some excellent pieces of writing, showing definite inspiration from the trip.
Pupils were asked to include similes, metaphors, alliteration, and lots of descriptive, creative writing. Correct use of punctuation, legible handwriting, using paragraphs and accurate spellings are also encouraged.
These Independent writing books are a super record of how each pupil progresses and develops their literacy skills, some pupils have work going back all the way to Pre-school!
Looking forward to seeing next term's work Class 4!
Class 3 has been busy writing this week. The children used their recent theatre visit to The Lion,The Witch and The Wardrobe as inspiration.
They began by discussing their ideas and planning their stories. The children had to think about describing the setting, the characters and the atmosphere. They had to ensure that their stories flowed using conjunctions and adverbials of time and place. I also asked them to include dialogue and of course use incredibly neat handwriting. A tough ask but they rose to the challenge brilliantly.
This week, in English we have started looking at humorous poems. The children enjoyed performing "Aliens Stole my Underpants" by Brian Moses in the classroom. Tomorrow we look forward to a visit from the Poet Paul Cookson. Watch this space for some of our own poems.
In Maths we have continued learning all about the properties of shape. We have been looking at lines of symmetry, sorting shapes based on their properties and making patterns.
In other areas of the curriculum, we have continued learning about different ceremonies. This week we explored what happens at a Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah ceremony. This week was Internet Safety Week. We looked at how we can be good Digital Citizens. Check out these activities you can do at home.
The children in Class One have been thinking about the Queen's very special Platinum Jubilee year. Seventy years is a huge amount of time and everyone thought it would be good to say 'thank you and congratulations'. To this end, a class poem was composed and handwritten for her Majesty, Spring flowers were painted to adorn the front of the card and the children's incredible insights about the service and care that the Queen has offered us all was popped into a letter and sent to Buckingham Palace with our love and best wishes. It was posted well in advance of February 6th, the day that the Queen came to the throne in 1952. We will let you know if we are lucky enough to get a reply! As well as this reason to celebrate in the Springtime, Class One have been thinking about the changes that take place in the natural world at this lovely time of year. They have started their topic by painting spring babies - lambs, chicks and kittens, along with colourful spring blossom and flowers - this is all coming together as a beautiful classroom display. This week has seen everyone working hard on story writing in Literacy, making and matching money totals in Numeracy, finding out about the life of Mary Seacole and the obstacles and prejudices that she encountered as she aspired to nurse the wounded soldiers in the Crimean War and comparing it to the support that was given to Florence Nightingale during the same era. On top of this, the weekly spellings and some fabulous reading has completed a very busy, successful week. Well done everyone!
All the children in EYFS have been celebrating Chinese New Year. They have made their own colourful dragon masks, which look great. They were so excited on Monday afternoon to have a go at learning a song with some Chinese words and then have a go at doing their own dragon dance. They certainly proved that they could work as a team making a long ‘dragon line’ to dance to the Chinese music. It was challenging but so much fun for everyone! They also played some percussion instruments and in particular drums to the beat! Kung Hei Fat Choy!
Pre-School
Happy Chinese New Year to you all! We have had a break from our Exploration topic this week and instead focused some of our attention to learning about how the Chinese culture celebrates its New Year festival.
The children have made fantastic Dragon masks that were used in a dragon dance during our P.E. session, sparkly red Chinese lanterns, Chinese fans and Chinese money pockets. The children have also watched some video clips of dragon dances and have had a go at saying Happy New Year in Chinese!
Pre-school children have also played Chinese Sudoku by looking carefully at repeating patterns and working out what comes next in the pattern to carry on the repeat.
Have a lovely half term break everyone. I know Pre-school have worked very hard this half term and deserve a good rest and break.
Francesca was player of the match on Sunday for Kesteven rugby club under 9’s. It was a really tough match, playing against Market Rasen whose players looked older than year 4!!!
Francesca’s resilience after taking two massive tackles and getting straight up to continue play, was commended by the coaches of both teams.
Luckily she had enough energy to take part in the Swimarathon later in the day!
Back at School
Aidan and Tom were two former head boys here at Grantham Prep. Last weekend they found themselves back at school at Mrs Dickinsons Saturday Drama workshop. They took the opportunity to have their photo taken together! They have grown up so much when you compare it to the last photo they had with each other!
There are no definitions or recipes to achieve it, but we could say that it is a virtue that requires working every day giving the best despite the obstacles and adversities that may arise.
These last two years have not been easy for students and the educational community in general. However, and in light of the results obtained by the students, it is possible to verify that they have been faithful to our educational project and objectives. Logically, the achievements are the result of teamwork between students, parents and the School.
For our part, we remain faithful to the commitment to stimulate our students so that they can develop all their capacities, fostering critical thinking and enhancing their personal skills. We are convinced that it is always possible to BE BETTER. We believe in comprehensive education because, among other things, it is the basis for achieving visible results such as obtaining the Diploma in the International Baccalaureate Program and, in a sustained and gradual way, progressing in academic results. Results that allow us to say that the SEK Chile International School is one of the best 20 schools in Chile. We are very proud of our students, since their outstanding achievements have been verified in a peculiar and even adverse context.
Our fundamental objective is to serve and improve the quality of students by making them learn more and better, while prioritizing education in values and wielding respect, honesty and tolerance as the tools to advance at a safe pace in the world that new generations will live. Our highest aspiration is the comprehensive training of our students.
On the other hand, the methodology used at the SEK Chile International School encourages individual and group work, is flexible and participatory, and is supported by the tutorial system and the application of multimedia technology that we constantly seek to modernize.
The results obtained by our students at an academic and personal level, the trust that families place in the School and in the Institution only confirm that we are on the path of Being Better.
School Bus Collection Points & Times
Bookings for this week:
Please contact the school office to book a place for your child.
8.05am Honnington
8.10am Barkston
8.20am Ancaster Playing Field
8.25am Ancaster Leisure Car Park (The Tank)
On Fridays the bus will run 15 minutes earlier to ensure pupils arrive in time for School Band.
The school bus mobile:
07784 343749
Access to the School Building after 4.30pm
As you are all aware there is now a gate which has a key code access to the Creche in the evening. If you do not have the code, please call 01476 593293 and your call will be answered by Creche.
